Michael Freedland is a British biographer, journalist and broadcaster. He's written for The Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator, The Guardian, The Observer and The Economist but he's probably best known for his biographies of Hollywood and its stars – and he's written over 40 of them. His book on Al Jolson was eventually turned into a West End Musical and he's written and presented programmes for Radio 2 about Elvis Presley, Bob Hope and Judy Garland.

On McCarthyism he told me, “It was as much anti-Semitic as it was anti-communist.” We discuss loosing his faith and why Gene Kelly was, "the most boring man I ever met".